Monday, June 22, 2015

Jenna Cardigan a Muse Pattern

The Jenna Cardigan is a pattern I have been wanting to try for quite some time. What is it about new patterns, they just sit there in your sewing space tempting you so? I finally got around to this one and it didn't disappoint.

You can read the complete description about the Jenna Cardigan (link above) but this is the part I really like .....Mix-and-match length, sleeve, and shoulder options to create up to 12 different styles.

Just check out the possibilities from the line drawing

I went with hip length and long sleeves. I am going to try the yoke version soon. My fabric is wonderful and a good weight and recovery for this pattern. It is a cotton spandex from Girl Charlee, Peacock Blue to be specific. Another good point of this fabric, the price point, $6.50 a yard, love it! This is the same fabric I used for the front of my Blouse Back T

This is a great pattern and I cannot wait to make it in a sweater knit, which I need to find first! I am going to go down a size, I really feel this needs to more fitted in the middle and at the hips.. I am going to do one of Debbie's FBA cheater adjustment. and see if that helps the pesky wrinkle just above the bust. I have been looking at other completed Jenna Cardigans and the ones with a snugger fit do not have the side wrinkles like the picture below. I have a question, with a more fitted garment does anyone else have trouble cutting the smaller size initially? I always balk at doing the smaller size the first time out. Definitely is easier to make it smaller I guess.

As I have stated in my last post, I have had some sewing failures of late. With this pattern, I really thought my luck was changing. The pattern went together beautifully, my sewing was great and my coverstitching was amazing -yes, going to brag. I was to the point of buttonholes and decided to wait a day to do these. Snap, end of the good sewing, my Pfaff buttonhole sensor decided to quit working after my practice buttonholes. I had a couple good ones then one that just sewed way too long. I tried to unsew but with a knit I usually end up with a hole. The thread matches nicely and with the cardigan buttoned, you cannot see the messed up buttonholes. I just left the buttonholes and marked this garment as finished. My machine is in getting repaired and I am "sew" missing it. I have Kaitlyn's machine to use and working on a quilt for Erin. She is redoing her bedroom and wants a new quilt, so this is a perfect time to sew that up for her. Fingers crossed my machine will be back this week. I have a list of garments to-do a mile long!

One more picture of the close up of the cardigan and you can see how loose it is at the hips. Go smaller on this one, it is fitted and I think needs to be a slim fit.

21 comments:

Had the same buttonhole problem on a Burdastyle cardigan made a few days ago on my Brother Innovis machine. I have never really warmed up to the machine - would love to hear what others say about it! Overall though, the buttonholer that came with the machine is, in my opinion, flimsy, and only works well with the lightest of fabrics.

I managed to unpick the terrible buttonhole and went straight away to EBay and purchased a Greist buttonholer for my machine. When it comes in I will try again, hoping I actually purchased the correct model for my machine!

Your crewneck cardigan is just what I have been looking for, as the Burdastyle is a V-neck design. But after going to the Muse site, I find the sizing unusual. It is based on a b-cup, 5 ft. 10 inch person - why? That prototype seems slightly out of the norm to me. As a result, I would be concerned about fit and possibly too many pattern adjustments. For example, how does this fit through the shoulders? It looks slightly large in your photos (no offense intended - you are a very skilled seamstress - more advanced than I). Perhaps this affects the area above the bust? And you said it was a little boxy - though it is also based on an hourglass figure. Would love to hear more about this pattern. Thank you for your post.

Muse Patterns are indeed designed for a 5' 10" woman. There are quite a lot of tall women who sew - in fact, for tall women it's often their height that got them into sewing in the first place, due to frustration over RTW garments that are too short in the leg and arm, and don't fit across shoulders! And yet, very very few patterns cater to this demographic, so we all have to make changes to every single pattern we buy. I'm tall myself, so to me it made sense to design patterns for people who are in that demographic. :-)

With the adjustments - for people shorter than 5' 10", there are really only two areas that you may need to adjust with the Jenna pattern. The sleeves will almost certainly need to be shortened - they're designed to go down past the wrist on a tall women, and are very likely to be too long on others. This is a super easy adjustment to make - simply fold some of the length out of the sleeve around half-way down the pattern piece, smooth out the line of the side seams, and you're done! :-)

The other area of adjustment, which you noticed, is at the shoulders. Depending on your individual build, you may or may not need to adjust these. Since Jenna is a knit pattern, a good way to check is to measure the distance across your shoulder and compare to the pattern piece. If you need to take any width out, you can fold it out from the middle of the shoulder and smooth out the line.

Aside from those two alterations though, there shouldn't be any others needed as a result of height differences. For more fitted/woven garments with waist seams there may be due to different torso lengths, but for this style that should be all you need, and they're nice and fast to do.

I made this cardi twice now and really love it. My first one was too big and looks rather "old lady librarian" on me. I used a wool knit that was a bit too thick too. The shoulders were too dropped on me. So the next one I made out of white jersey was much better. I made the cropped one with 3/4 sleeves. I narrowed the shoulders but about 1 cm and it's much better and also narrowed the sleeves. I decided tho the next one I make I will go down one size and use 1/4 seam allowances. It's easier on my serger, but haven't found any fabric yet. Thanks for the heads up about Girl Charlee.

Also for the button holes, I had trouble last time getting them even from the edge and had to rip off the placket and redo. When I redid it, I found it was easier to make the button holes before I attached the placket it to the cardi because there was no ridge that I had to worry about where the placket and the cardi attached. I will definitely be doing it this way from now on. I also gave up on my machine's button hole foot and use a vintage attachment I got from my mom. It's SOOOO much better for me to use this. Perfect button holes every time!

Love the pattern so much now that I'm getting it tweaked just how I want it. It's a great pattern.

Lovely color! I have this pattern printed out, ready to tape and move forward with it. Only I keep going onto another project. All the versions I see of this cardi are very nice. This looks like a good fit to me and you do have lots of options with this pattern.

Kat from Muse Patterns - Thank you for the explanation, and of course, thank you Lori! I always enjoy viewing the outstanding garments you make. I am very interested in the Muse cardigan and think I will try it. Sewing women are great!

I have made this cardi 3 times and love it. I think now I need another with 3/4 sleeves for summer. I am only 5 ft and I have successfully altered this to fit me. I love the curvy shape, just like a good RTW cardigan. I think you do need a small FBA. Play with pins and make a dart where the wrinkle is. Then check out Knits for Real People new from Palmer/Pletsch. She has lots of suggestions for darts and FBA in knits, even some cheater suggestions for when you don't want darts.

I love that cardigan and the color is awesome. Despite some minor fitting problems, you look great wearing it! I only noticed the problems because you pointed them out. Most of the time, I have to tweak a pattern after making it the first time and often continue to work on improvements with several attempts. I think that your issues can be fixed easily and, meanwhile, you have a gorgeous sweater to wear. I'm off to order some of that peacock blue fabric and may just copy your Jenna Cardigan. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Lori! Thanks for reviewing this cardigan and I am so glad Kat addressed some of the issues! I bought this pattern last month after seeing so many reviews from Julie Starr and Art Attack! You should check theirs review as they are full of great tips! I am 5'7" with long arms! It does look like a muslin is in order with this pattern!